Towards the Establishment of an African Cyber-Army
ABSTRACT
Cybersecurity has become a critical element of the national security of countries. A cyber-army is a group of soldiers highly skilled in information technology with cyber skills. Cyber-armies are the unseen military cyber power which countries should employ to maintain national cybersecurity. A cyber-army has the ability to launch cyberattacks and collect information in order to gain a strategic military advantage. In this paper, selected cyber-armies are compared. The focus is on the establishment of an African Cyber-Army to defend and protect cyber sovereignty. An African Cyber-Army has to serve nations whose citizens often have low levels of cybersecurity awareness in conjunction with rapidly growing rates of access to cyberspace.
AUTHORS
Directorate Information Warfare South African National Defence Force, Pretoria, South Africa and University of Venda
South Africa
Lieutenant Colonel Michael (Mike) J. Aschmann has been in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) since 1992 and is currently responsible for the Interoperability Development Capability within SANDF. He has a sound experience in operational deployments both internally and externally in Africa, with a wide knowledge in Information and Communication Technology research in the cyber environment.
Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria,
South Africa
Prof. Joey Jansen van Vuuren heads the Computer Science Department at Tshwane University of Technology and is the Vice Chair of IFIP (Federation for Information Processing) Working Group 9.10. Her research focus on cybersecurity, education, government, and policy. She was the coordinator of the South African Cybersecurity Centre of Innovation for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that initiated several cybersecurity government initiatives in South Africa.
University of the Western Cape and Center for Artificial Intelligence Research Cape Town,
South Africa
Louise Leenen areas of specialization are Artificial Intelligence applications in Cyber Defence and mathematical modelling. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She is the Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing’s Working Group 9.10 on ICT Uses in Peace and War. Louise holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Wollongong in Australia.
Published In
Journal of Information Warfare
The definitive publication for the best and latest research and analysis on information warfare, information operations, and cyber crime. Available in traditional hard copy or online.
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